Themes in American History

With the recent invention of automobiles, city streets became chaotic and dangerous.  There was a mixture of pedestrians, buggies and cars and a need for order.  In about 1920, Detroit police officer William Potts invented an overhanging four-way, red, green, and yellow light system.  The traffic light brought order to the chaotic city and also set the trend for inventing ways to modernize the city.  

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“One of the chief values of clothing is that it enables people to advertise themselves in a way that will win the attention and admiration of others. Many who lack any ability and could not hope to rise above the “average” on their own merit alone, find a satisfactory outlet for this desire for recognition through the medium of dress.” (Hurlock 1929:28-29) Elizabeth Hurlock described the importance of fashionable dress.

Following the fashion cycle, department stores advertised through window displays and window displays. The department store became one of the most important institutions. It was a community center for women. It is not only a place of middle- and upper-class women for consumption but also provided women with job opportunities. From the slogan of Marshall Field “Give the lady what she wants”, we can tell the vital role of women as the department stores’ primary consumers. It helped change the women’s role in society.

B. Altman and Company was founded in 1865 and closed in 1989. It was the first big department store to make the move from the Ladies Mile shopping district

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The Roaring Twenties was known as time of social, geographical and economical changes in America. Although a lot happened during the twenties, one of the greatest events of American history was the Great Depression, a time period of American despair and reformation. Many topics such as Flappers, women’s rights, bootlegging were all part of the Roaring Twenties but the Great Depression marked one of the world’s greatest economical downfalls in all of history. No other civilization has had such depression compared to that of the Great Depression. The picture that is shown here is a famous black and white photo of a mother fostering to her children during the Great Depression. 1929 marked a historical time period where the U.S market crashes and starts the Great Depression. The photo taken by Dorothea Lange is called the Migrant Mother who is depicted as a mother of seven children in California during the start of the Great Depression. The phase “a picture describes a thousand words” vividly translates to this photo of a middle aged women, looking away in despair with two of her kids helplessly resting on her shoulder. The Great Depression was America’s most difficult economical and financial downfalls but it also resulted in a much stronger and persistent market that has evolved into one of the world’s strongest markets.

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Before the 1920s, women were used to work at home. Taking care of her family was the primary duty for them, Such as washing dish, cloth, and cooking dinner for their families. At that time, they hadn’t any entertainments and political rights. In contrary, men owned all priorities and authorities, for example; they could go outside to work, and go to club for having fun; also they have right to vote, etc.

During and after the 1920s, there were quite a lot changes in the society. Women began to work outside of their house. Taking care of families weren’t women’s duties any more.   They started to work at factories for making money as men did, and joined women club. Also, they realized that women should have equal opportunities of jobs and rights like men.  In 1920s, women began to have right to vote and participated in political position.

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American Journalism

CHeck out the link above about American Journalism. It is very interesting and talks about journalists, political scene, social climate, media moments, trends in journalism.

I n my opinion Journalism is one the most important things in history. It has change over time via radio, newspapers, and now online. It is important to know that there are people out there risking their life, reputation, something for their opinions, and thought  be heard in some aspect. That is why I chose this because transition from the beginning to now and it will constantly be changing..

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The period between 1880-1920 is known in the history of the US as the Progressive Era. It was a time when urban society was open for changes. During the 1920s, urbanization took place on a wider front than ever before. Manufacturing, industrialization and commercialization boosted the population of many cities creating more jobs for the working class. Increases in population size and high production output by manufacturing methods, such as the assembly line, has led to pollution confounding the issues of sanitation and health. As a result, the urban population was faced with numerous types of infections and fatal diseases that threatened their health and safety. The majority of people were forced to live in crowded tenement apartments, sometimes with a few families sharing a room. When one member of the family became severely ill, the risk of it spreading was exponentially greater and easier due to the confined living space. Therefore, the importance of penicillin in the development of modern cities became crucial.
Invented in Europe in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming then refined in Oxford University by Howard Walter Floreyand, penicillin was quickly produced around in the U.K. However, it was taken up by the U.S and by using an American innovation, the assembly line, it was produced in enough quantities that made it available and affordable to most Americans. Its ability to kill infectious bacteria has been a break through in medicine. This was most readily seen by the drop in infant and child mortality rates. Where common infections and illnesses were viewed with fatal fear, the advent of penicillin gave the American people and the world a new weapon in the war against illness. For that reason it was called as the “miracle drug” and would prove to be the discovery that changed the way we view and understand modern medicine and science.

Early penicillin culture facility at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford, England.
© Museum of the History of Science, Oxford

Photograph courtesy of Associated Press
Sir Alexander Fleming, 1952

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVE5IWCHLF0

In my opinion, one of the greatest examples that represent modernity during 1920s was changing role of women in the society. The beginning of this revolution was caused by passing the 19^th Amendment to U.S Constitution which finally gave a women right to vote. Since then mentalities of women began to change. They started to engage in their career life, with concentration in female occupations like teachers, nurses and office workers. They also demanded for equal rights and higher wages in order to become economically and socially equal of men. The number of educated women increased. The marriage started to be perceived as an equal partnership and casual dating became increasingly accepted. What’s more women changed their appearance. They started to wear less conservative clothes. Shorter above their knees gave women the chance to manifest their freedom. Women’s haircut went shorter to a “bob” and they become more comfortable with smoking cigarettes. Visual icons of modernity were flappers – young emancipated women interested in fashion and makeup, embracing new attitude toward everyday life. They listened to jazz music and were symbols of new generation. I found a video, which presents a lot of interesting pictures of women who were livening in 1920’s .

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In the 1920s, women adopted a new fashion trend where they liberalized themselves from the constricting clothes to more comfortable and sporty clothes. In the early 1920s, there were still alot of those who continued to wear conservative dresses but younger generation women began to wear sported shorter skirts. The main look that many women strived for was the straight-line chemise, a bob hair cut, and a hat to top it off. Fashion back in the 1920s was influenced heavily by a movement called surrealism which features elements of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions. Thus, the smooth, mechanized, and geometric forms were incorporated into clothing instead of the usual curvy look. Coco Chanel, a French fashion designer, brought her modernist philosophy to fashion by designing clothes that were menswear inspired and also comfortable.

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There were still farms in both cities, but they started to die out. Farms moved to more rural cities since the big cities needed that land to build buildings and other more useful things. Insurance had expanded to cover fire, marine, and wool manufacturing damages. After the Connecticut compromise, States were equally represented in congress. Even though slavery was abolished in NY in 1801 there were still slaves in both cities up until the 1870’s. 

New York had developed much quicker and in a more organized way than Connecticut. The main reason for that in my opinion is NY’s geographical location advantage over Connecticut. New York’s port gave it a great boost economically since they were able to ship and trade goods and later on sell it to other cities, making the most profit because the products reach their hands first. Also more immigrants moved into NY than Connecticut, causing NY to expand quicker because of the cheap labor of the new immigrants. New York started to develop earlier than Connecticut so it also had a time advantage. Connecticut was bigger on slaves at the time, because of the farms they still had while New York already got rid of them.

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Chicago, one of America’s greatest cities, saw a drastic change during post civil war era. One of the reasons for this major change was both geographical and economical. Since the war ended and the South had lost the war, many business entrepreneurs and investors saw a great deal of potential in Midwestern cities like St. Louis and Chicago. According to Chudacoff, “Chicago grew with the aid of railroads, and as a web of tracks extended in all directions towards Chicago, the trains began cutting into St Louis’s commercial hinterland (Pg 81).” Chicago certainly had an advantage that was crucial for transportation of trade through an east-west route making it more accessible and convenient for farmers to ship grain and livestock to New York. Chicago also grew in population in 1840, becoming the ninth most populous city in America.  The greatest change that occurred in comparison to New York however, was the construction of railroads that had entered into the city through thirty different lines. Having a reliable source of transportation allows the city to quickly and thoroughly move people and goods from one place to another. The city was able to flourish with the railroads but as well with the geographical spread of the city as well. The city was harboring by the Great lakes and with the State of Illinois pinpointing on the canals, Chicago emerged as the City by the Lake. New York was now able to reach Chicago by both land and water. Both cities emerged as the major cities of modern day with many cultural and economical factors that are driving the force of America today.

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A free black community of institutional complexity was a particularly new feature of urban life. As free African Americans moved to cities to look for employment opportunity, they also made the society more complexity and influence the urban economy system. New York and Philadelphia are both the city that attracted the free African American came to look for their new lives. Especially in New York City, the free African American population was more than 8 percent of the city’s total. Although the society of the cities were dominated by the white men, there still a group of African Americans fought for their rights and created their own community. In Philadelphia, the Angola Beneficial Society was established in 1808, the African Insurance Company in 1809, the Sons of Africa in 1810, and the African Female and Male Benevolent Societies in the following years. By the 1820s in Philadelphia, African Americans had created an institutional life that was richer and more stable than that of the lower-income whites with whom they shared neighborhoods. As well as in a mixed uptown area in New York City, where small craft shops bordered on larger factories, a group free blacks who were able to purchase cheap house supported two black Methodist churches and a racially mixed Episcopal church, and the “Colored Scholl,” (Chudacoff, P69) These indicated that the social lives of Africa Americans had something changed due to the society and the economy development.

Even both New York City and Philadelphia demanded the labor of free African Americans. But the requirements for the labors were different. In most northern seaports, most free African –American men worked as laborers or mariners, but a few worked as artisans, servile or dirty labor like barbering and butchering. In New York City, free slaves were more than twice as likely to posses a skill than in Philadelphia. (Chudacoff,p68). Because New York City had diversity commerce like manufactory and small business, it needed different kinds of labors. Such as the White New York artisans relied heavily on the skilled labors.

No matter how difference roles the Africa Americans played in the different cities during, they were the import part of the American history and they contribute to the American economy.

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Immigrants had an important impact on many cities of the Untied State. For example, New York is a diversity city

which accepted many immigrants from over the world; especially people from Europe, Germany and Ireland, and so on

in 1820-1860. Immigrants contributed labor force for the development of New York City. They were used to work at

factory and port for delivering goods.

The first purpose was getting rich fast for people ,who went to  California in 1845-1863. Because of gold rush, many

immigrants moved into California, therefore it became a bigger and wealth city gradually. At the time, most immigrants

were from China. They were in order to get rich and have a better life, most people abandoned their families and moved

to California. However, later on, they became a particular force which built railroad from west to central of the

Untied State with gold rushed up.

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New York: Slavery has been a key element in the development of New York City since its former time and it has served as the capital of American slavery for more than two centuries. Slavery was not fully abolished in New York until 1827 however the gradual abolishment process began in 1799.  By the 1800s slave trade proved to be a profitable business for the merchants in New York City. Almost every merchants and business man had a stake in the slave trade. By 1850s the owners of slaves would hire out or rent their slaves to nearby employers thus making it profitable for both slaves and masters. The slaves would have the opportunity to food, drink and entertainment. They had time to run their own churches and enjoyed a great mobility and cultural autonomy. They not only got the opportunity to social with their own race but also with poor whites. However it was not possible to supervise for the masters to supervise their slaves each and every minute especially if they were hired out. Slave codes then came into the picture resulting into a formal segregation which excluded slaves from most public accommodations. The law required the slaves to have license for certain jobs and they were forbidden to learn how to read and write.

Nashville: Slaves where one of the most valuable assets for Nashville. It served as a market for both the purchasing and selling of slaves. It had a large population of skilled slaves and by 1800 forty five percent of Nashville inhabitants were slaves. However by 1860 this number started gradually declining to the immigrants from Europe. Living in the city provided the slaves with great opportunity to read and write and experience quasi-independence that was unknown to those who were still living in the plantation. Most of them were skilled worker, had family and maintained a social life and religion.

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Pittsburg was similar to NYC in that the city was able to take advantage of its geographical location with the Pennsylvania mainline canal, earning the title “Gateway to the West”. Located on one of the world’s biggest coal deposits, the city’s economy was run by factories that manufactured steamboats and household heating. Whereas many Southern rural cities depended on Northern urban cities to import and export goods, this was a city with no such dependency. Also, while NYC’s economy revolved around their trade and commerce, Pittsburg had an additional advantage with its abundant natural resources such as natural gas and petroleum that allowed the city to not function merely as a port but as exporter. The War of 1812 further boosted Pittsburg’s economy. The British cut off their manufactured supplies to America and the country became more dependent on American manufacture, heavily depending on inland trading.  Thus, Pittsburg’s manufactured goods became even higher in demand.

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The focus of our course is on history relevant to that of New York.  However, while learning of the transition in New York history my curiosity grows for that of the unmentioned California cities.  For my post i decided to compare and contrast California with New York during the Civil War.  It is unclear if between 1800 and 1865, cities were established in California.  The text mentions that California was divided into upper and lower California at the time.  California officially became a state in 1850 and surprisingly played an important part during the Civil War.  Both upper and lower California belonged to the free Union but California had strong confederate ties because many southerners moved to the lower California area during the war.  During the civil war many confederates wanted control over lower California because of the large amount of gold present in that area but also because after the Union blocked off Southern ports, confederates wanted control over the southern California harbors.  Similar to the city of New York at this time, California was very involved in the civil war and had freed slaves living there as well.  However California was not as much of a large trade center in the United States and was just being discovered for what it was actually worth.

information taken from:  http://www.drumbarracks.org/Original%20Website/California.htm

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What the lost museum tells about entertainment is the rapid increase of many forms of social activities during the 1900’s that has shaped and still continues to impact NYC.  After the American Revolution, people again settled down in NYC and sought out forms of amusement and there was one particular person who provided it.  P. T. Barnun was a businessman that was a prominent figure that molded the entertainment industry by providing many venues such as a museum, circus, aquariums, and musical theathers. 

As I continued to explore the museum, I could not help but focus on the social issues on display in the lecture room of the museum, that involved race and immigration.  During the 1900’s there seems to be tension between races and the growing concern of the immigrant population. 

P. T. Barnum’s hoaxes and his forms of entertainment still impacts NYC and all of the US.  What amazes me is that it has contined to evolve.

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The lost museum website has very rich, unbiased content. The material highlights many significant historical events that has changed the face of NYC. The museum site amazed me with themes such as race relations, unemployment, religious, social  disparity and  forms of entertainment. What I was very impressed with was that, as I got loss in the site I found a  mystery and adventure section that was available. The background of the adventure follows PT Barnum as an investigator looking into the burning of a building. However the mystery was reserved for signed up users. However, the lure of the mystery pulled me in adding fun to a very formalized site.

The site is very organized with many amenities and learning instruments. It has an appeal that can attract interested users of all ages. However its many amenities and detailed information may serve as a weakness. With many categories and several themes the site felt overwhelming with many details to cover the countless events of that time period. The site bombarded me with many information and concepts that may require a lot of time to cover specific information and may exclude younger users.

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“Walking” around the museum was very interesting since i had never experienced something similar to it before. The 3D virtual tour is very detailed and perfectly graphically designed. The museum points out the different reactions people had to various entertainments. The NYC show business is pretty much built on that old 19th century theory. I believe that the experiments that had been done back then helped the entertainment around the world to develop to what it is now. There are all sorts of interesting inventions like the elephant umbrella stand.

Also the different methods that people came up with to entertain and using things, this makes me think that they were eager to find something that will work as well as them being artistic and creative.  Even though the site tour was great, i would have loved to walk through it in real life. The site does a wonderful job of passing on the knowledge and the unique experience, i’m sure that walking through the museum in person would give the audience a  different experience and leave a different impression.  It would be hard to gather all the info from the site if it is needed since it is scatted throughout the site, but otherwise the site is great.

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The Barnum Museum is a display of the rich historical art of the 19th century. The virtual tour is so realistic that it’s almost like being there in person. The entertainment during that era was a combination of music, drama, literature and art. The introductory music to the virtual tour of the museum was upbeat and soulful. Entertainment in the 19th century New York was class segregated. The thriving entertainment industry had a lot to offer to its audience such as theatre, circuses and exhibition. The upper class New Yorkers enjoyed Italian Opera.
The museum mostly consists of wax statues of human and animals. It also has a display of paintings and weapons. Each and every artifact displayed, comes with information describing it making it easier for its viewer to understand and relate to it. The museum has three levels: the first level, second and third. When I clicked on the first floor I entered into P.T Barnum’s office. By clicking on the images a detailed caption appears with all the relevant information. The second floor consists of all the wax works, paintings and weapons of the 19th century New York. The third floor was called the ‘lecture Room’ or the theatre where Shakespeare’s dramas were held. The museum is actually a portrayal that the 19th century New Yorkers loved entertainment. Even though it was class segregated each class enjoyed the entertainment that was available to them.
The museum was destroyed by fire in 1865 but Barnum quickly reopened a second one in a different location and unfortunately it was destroyed as well. Barnum’s American museum was the only place where immigrants, native-born, working class and middle class, men and women could come together.

Barnum used this image to advertise his controversial 1842 exhibition of the FeJee mermaid. Once inside the American Museum, visitors were doubtless surprised by the actual appearance of the so-called mermaid; the astonishment engendered by such misleading promotion came to be an expected part of the American Museum experience. A similar image of a bare-breasted mermaid with flowing hair adorned an eight-foot high color banner on the outside of New York's Concert Hall, where the mermaid debuted before transferring to the American Museum

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While journeying through the Barnum Museum I was intrigued with the many artifacts, newspaper clips and portraits to view and research.  It seems that entertainment in 19th century NYC revolved around looking at people and things that were not the “norm”.  There was a widespread of curiosity towards the ideas of mermaids, over weight people, “albinoes” and things of that sort.  Culturally the museum seems a bit biased in that there is nothing promoting a positive image of any race apart from whites.  It was interesting to find a newspaper article dated February 27, 1849 in the New York Tribune giving permission to allow only a special class of “colored people” into the museum.  However they were only allotted a certain time frame and date for which they were allowed admittance.  The museum was informative in giving information about one aspect of entertainment in NYC history.  It was a bit difficult to navigate through the virtual museum and i found the “archive” tool extremely helpful in finding information.  

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